Mindfulness tools for stress

byDr Purves

Mindfulness tools for stress

Stress is an option

I imagine that you are thinking to yourself…really can you be serious? I didn’t choose to be stressed or anxious. I don’t choose to worry. And of course you don’t! But neither do you choose the alternative. You don’t choose not to be stressed. You don’t choose not to be anxious or to worry. You do spend time trying to manage it as best you can and this is usually by trying not to think about it, trying to avoid it and of course toughing it out.

Non of that is ideal because it is not challenging the problem at all. It is simply accepting the problem and trying your best to work around it.

My solution is to challenge the problem directly. Because here is the ‘mind blower’. The negative beliefs you have about yourself cause your problems and those negative beliefs can be changed. Even better, I can demonstrate to you that most of the are wrong.

Why stress and anxiety are options

That is why stress and anxiety are options. The beliefs that cause it can be changed if you engage with the problem directly. Everything else is accepting it.

The same logic also holds true for anxiety. When you change the beliefs that cause the anxiety it disappears because it has no basis anymore.